We know a police officer who arched his back so severely over years of bench-pressing that he finally was forced to retire. So keep in mind the following during your free weight workouts:
- Use proper form when you lift a weight off the rack. When you lift a dumbbell or barbell off a rack or when you lift a weight plate off a weight tree, always
- Bend from your knees — not from your hips.
- Get in close to the rack.
- Keep your arms bent.
- Pay attention when carrying weights around.
- Hold heavier weight plates with two hands.
- Keep the plates close to your body when you carry them.
- Watch where you’re going when you carry barbells.
- Making a U-turn while hauling around a 7-foot bar can cause serious destruction.
- Keep your elbows slightly bent when carrying a dumbbell in each hand.
- Use collars. A collar is a clamplike device that you use to secure a weight plate onto a bar. Often, when you perform a barbell exercise, the bar tilts slightly to one side; without a collar, the plates may slide right off and land on somebody’s toes or crash into the mirrors on the wall. We know one woman who was knocked unconscious when a collar flew off a guy’s weight bar and hit her in the head.
- Don’t drop weights on the floor. After you complete a dumbbell exercise on a bench (such as the chest fly or dumbbell chest press):
- Bring the weights to your chest.
- Gently rock yourself up into a sitting position.
- Some people simply let go of the weights, which isn’t only unnerving to the other gym members but also unsafe because they can land anywhere, roll, and create hazards for others. Weights always need to be controlled.
- Safely return weights to the rack. When you finish using dumbbells, barbells, or weight plates, don’t just lean straight over with locked knees and plunk the weights back on the rack.
- Bend your knees.
- Pull your abdominals in.
- Hold the weights close to your body before you release them.
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